With the Definite Clause Grammars (DCG) is it possible to describe a language. But this is not a simple thing because natural languages are not simple. DCG programs represent mostly only parts of a human language. My aim is to describe a complete language. This language has to be very simple because I am not a genius. For example Esperanto is not simple enough (for me . I hope toki pona is simple enough for my aim. I write Prolog scripts to describe the grammar rules of every of my toki pona lessons.

DCG notation is syntactic sugar for normal definite clauses of Prolog. Prolog is an old programming language for artificial intelligence. Prolog is different to the most programming languages. You don't have to program the solution for a problem. You describe the situation and Prolog tries to find the solution. For Prolog it's better if you have not experiences in other programming languages.

Yes, but it is possible to ask a y/n question by change of voice (probably upturn at the end) marked only by the question ark. So, since 'sina wile ala mute moku.' is an OK declaration, the same form with a different intonation is an OK question.

I think jan Kipo is correct. That said, I do wonder about the interpretation of the sentence "sina wile ala mute moku?" even if a question like that is allowed. Since there's no "pi" between "wile" and "ala mute", "ala" and "mute" would apply to "wile" separately, right? So you want both 'not' and 'a lot'?

More importantly, incredibly interesting project! I hope to look into it further in the near future, when I am done with my exams.

Well, I wrote most of the formal grammars of tp and so know how much they leave out. I can't find the intonation point just now -- was it in Sonja or Pije or on the Forum? Anyhow, it is there. In any case, there are more grammatical sentences -- even more questions -- than those with a 'x ala x' verb.The other point is messier. I suppose the English would be "Do you very much not want to eat" I am not sure what 'pi' would produce, since 'mute' directly modifying 'ala', rather than the other way around, is indeed pretty opaque. But 'mute' modifying 'wile ala', as here, is clear while unusual. ('ala' applies to 'wile', 'mute' applies to 'wile ala' -- left grouping always absent a 'pi')

Ah, of course, I always misinterpret when multiple words are modifying a given head word. It's just left associative in toki pona; I should remember it's that simple. So "mute" and "ala" don't individually modify "wile" (that would be a tricky tree structure anyway); first "ala" modifies "wile", and then "mute" modifies "wile ala". In that case it does indeed become more easily interpretable. My thanks.

The discussion is going more and more off topic. The topic is "Describing Toki Pona with the computer language Prolog and DCG"!

I'm making DCG rules based on the lessons of my website and the official Toki Pona book. Sentences, which do not fit to these rules will be marked as "false". You can find more sentences with wrong grammar at the end of every DCG lesson in http://rowa.giso.de/languages/toki-pona/dcg/ and I can give you a lot more examples with wrong grammar if you like.

I'm open minded for suggestions to improve these DCG rules. But discussions with "May be .." or "It could be ..." don't help. Toki Pona is often very ambiguous. Only clear grammar rules can avoid this.

Well, this is an impressive mass of work (your note makes it sound like a project, not a mainly completed reality). In any case, here are the problem cases (astonishingly few), many of them the result of relatively recent changes which have not been accepted in all dialects, but are close to the community consensus. There are a couple of cases still up in the air as well.

10 about the limits of grammar: 'lipu ni li pilin lete' is wrong because 'pilin' (like 'olin', etc.) only takes sentient subjects, which 'lipu' probably is not. But is this grammatical or something else? (I suppose it intends 'lete pilin')settled but still disputed: 'mi kin' requires 'li' so 'mi kin olin e sina' is ungrammatical.I didn't see a case, but can a sentence contain 'anu' and not be a question?

11 Yeah, titles are a problem. This seems to be going in the right way (I prefer all have quotes, like untpized foreign words).

12 'akesi mu li tawa' is borderline. Those who use 'mu' and 'a' as verbs and nouns (and, hence, modifiers) say it is fine; otherwise not.

14 As earlier 'jan mute mute mute li kama' is questionable on various grounds. Any sensible reading requires at least one 'pi', but ….'ni li jan lili ona pi nanpa tu' is ungrammatical – no 'pi' with 'nanpa''ni li jan tu tu tu tu' is clearly OK, since officially there are only 'wan' and 'tu' as numbers; the use of 'luka', etc. is officially optional (or even discouraged).

15 And, if you must use a comma with 'la', it goes after the 'la'. The multiple 'mute' problem again. No clear solution in sight, but the old rules would allow at most two 'mute' in a row without a 'pi' (one “very” and one “many”). 'ken la tenpo pimeja la ni li pona' is clearly grammatical, I don't now understand your use of unofficial unofficial words, like 'X-Files' and 'MIRC' but not “Lisbon”. I'm also wondering about rejecting a sentence because of a (moderately appropriate) comma.